They mostly come at night... mostly.

Part the Fourth, The Undead come!

The characters were tasked with bringing the news of the death to the dwarf miners at Gimbrin's mine (and they needed to see Bardak about burial mounds anyway).

Upon reaching the mine, darkness had begun to fall and they were challenged by dwarf guards and eventually led to the hall to see Gimbrin himself.

Gimbrin listened to the warning and seemed somewhat concerned about the idea of undead and though it best to summon the Loremaster, Bardak.

Bardak was an especially old dwarf that had seen and learnt a lot over the nearly 3 centuries of his life. He listened to the story about the undead and recalled that there were burial mounds of a certain group of notorious bandits in the area that were cold killers and were hunted down by the Duc de Parravon and his knights, many years ago. He thought that the mounds were all near the top of the valley and that they could investigate there.

However, the conversation was cut short by a shouted warning from the guards - the undead had arrived! Rushing out into the knight they could see about a dozen skeleton horsemen carrying burning torches and riding up the valley to the mine. They were led by Didier Cousteau; as skilled a leader in death as he was in life.

The dwarfs quickly organised, grabbed weapons (pick axes and some crossbows) and headed across the stone bridge to defend that choke point and reduce the horses effectiveness. The horsemen made for the dwarf huts and set them on fire, while others made for the mule pen to kill them and stop any quick escape. 

Jurgen and the crossbowmen defended the pen and managed to hold off the attackers for some time, while Didier attempted to cross the bridge. The dwarfs held and made the skeletons pay for every step. It seemed like the dwarfs were going to win the fight until Didier, eyes glowing balefire, started to resurrect the undead - he had been given some necromantic powers over his soldiers!

The Dwarfs despaired, and began to give ground, but Heinfried saw what needed to be done and, while Jules covered him with his bow and Drokdrin carved a path for him, Heinfried made straight for Didier.

It was a desperate battle, but the characters eventually triumphed!

To the Farm

The dwarfs gathered what was left of their possessions and started to make for Fruegelhofen to stand with their neighbours against this threat. On the way they saw that one of the 2 outlying farms was in flames and everyone feared for the other farm. The characters headed there as quickly as they could and the dwarfs continued to the village.

The farm was remote, but surrounded by good earth. As the characters approached, the large hunting dog started to bark loudly and everyone filed out of the house to greet their arrivals, led by Emmerich, the ex-mercenary come farmer.

Inside the house the events were retold and it was suggested they all head for Fruegelhofen. However, the plan was interupted by more barking from outside and, looking out, they could see the undead had already arrived.

About 15 skeletons could be seen heading up the track in their ancient armour and, marching at the head of the band was Bettino Taglielli; a brutal leader famed for his ferocity in life.

The occupants quickly barricaded the house as best they could while the undead surrounded the house.

A desparate battle ensued where the undead were trying to force their way in through windows and break down barricaded doors. Eventually, they forced their way in and everyone fought as best they could in the house. A joint effort, by the characters and Fleck, the hunting dog, eventually defeated Bettino and ended the fight with a few injuries but no deaths.

For the second time that night, refugees gathered what few possessions they had and made their way quickly to Fruegelhofen.

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See you in the next update.

Overwhelming Darkness

We've played some pretty poor Kickstarters lately (Myth & Shadows of Brimstone, Im looking at you) and our faith in Kickstarter was shaken. It seemed like 'big' KS games lacked development, being rushed out to please screaming backers that wanted everything yesterday!

Fortunately, Mr Poots never did that and delivering 2 years late has done wonders for this game. I would recommend it to anyone that like dark fantasy campaign games based around boss fights (a sort of Populace meets Monster Hunter with a Dark Souls theme).

He might have a penis obsession, but Mr Poots can design a game!

(and all the weird imagery adds greatly to the game atmosphere).

The darkness is indeed overwhelming...

Expect more Kingdom Death content. I plan on painting it in the new year and there will be plenty of play sessions happening.

See you in the next update.

Cast the first stone

Part the Third, The Stoning Festival

The party reached Frugelhofen.
The village has a mix of Brettonian and Imperial settlers and exists on a mix of animal husbandry, fishing and farming; it is self-sustaining, paying taxes or owning allegiance to no authority.

As they approached the village, a group of children went running for their father who came out to greet the party. He directed them to the Mill at the far end of the village as Hector is something of a village headman.

Upon meeting Hector he explained they have a number of visitors already and the only real place left to stay is Widow Le Roux's barn, so he took them to meet her.

The middle-aged widow was something of a 'cougar' and immediately welcomed the new male guests and allowed them to stay in her barn (thought there was room in the house for 1 person...).
Hector explained he was having an open house that evening and it was the local festival of 'Stoning Day' tomorrow.

The party wasted no time asking about burial mounds and they were directed to Reinwald Lutter who had lived here all of his 71 years. Reinwald was cantankerous, rude, senile, half deaf and a little paranoid - a perfect combination for roleplaying!
They eventually learned from Herr Lutter that there was a mound about an hour north from the village, so they decided to investigate.

Upon reaching the mound, the seal stone was found to be cracked and had a gap easily large enough for a man to climb through. Exploring the place Heinfreid was alerted to the fact that there was animal bones and some webbing here so the party backed away while he prepared some oil and a torch. The giant spider was driven from its burrow in blind panic and Drok'Drin, too soon, ran to meet it - it proved to be a mistake!

The Spider ran across the ceiling and dropped onto the Dwarf, biting down hard into his shoulder. His iron constitution ensured the poison did not affect him, but now he had a large spider on top of him and he could not bring his weapon to bear.
Heinfried responded by hacking away at the spider's abdomen and Jurgen did the same while Jules looked for a clear shot with his longbow. All the time the dwarf was being repeatedly bitten by the spider.
Eventually, the spider was badly mauled and it attempted to slink away but Heinfried finished it off. Drok'Drin was in bad shape and had to be carried to safety.

safety. Jurgen examined the tomb and found it to be that of an ancient barbarian warlord, not what they were looking for. So Heinfried and Jules looted it of valuables...

That evening was Hector's open house and the party got to meet some more of the villagers and the guests that were staying there. The Apple Cider and Brandy that Hector is famous for was flowing somewhat freely and people were being mostly sociable to the outsiders.

Shalyir Moonhand and Albi Shultz are 'adventurers' that like to travel around and they found themselves in Frugelhorn and decided to stay and relax for a while.
All was clearly not as it seemed with the well-armed elf and the smooth-talking imperial.

Cecil De Vere Cholmodely was a Brettonian noble that had managed to briefly escape court life (personal friend of the King) to get a holiday. His family had tracked him down and his retainers were on their way, he just needed somewhere to stay and a few crowns to get by until they get here.
Again, there were clearly holes in the story of this 'noble'.
[Note: for those of you in the know, I have changed elements of the background story for Cecil].

As the evening wore on, Heinfreid and Jules got talking to Albi and Shalyir. Shalyir was keen to ask about recent events in Bordelaux and Albi was clearly on the run from something (he related to the outlaw that was Jules). Jules knew about some rivalry between noble families and one noble had murdered another noble and disapeared. There was now a large price on his head.
Jules decided to confront Shalyir about her buisness openly and was lucky not to end up with his guts on the floor in the process. However, upon learning that Jules was a fugitive (as Albi) she decided he did not need killing afterall and something of a respect was garnered through the incident.

Jurgen, meanwhile, had basically sussed out Cecil (by reciting Brettonian poetry that he should have known) and was willing to just let him off the hook with his charade. However, he learnt that Cecil was taking these mountain folk for a ride and conning money out of them. Jurgen decided he would deal with it another time.

It was not long until the Lauterbach brothers were drunk and picked on some Brettonian scum, Jules.

Jules 'spilled' one of their drinks which, after Heinfried's intervention, resulted in a mere fist-fight outside. However, Gottlieb Lauterbach was too drunk and Jules to inept with his fists that nobody was really hurt and hands were shaken and all was well.

The next day was stoning day and some merriment was had playing crockery pinata and eating food. Their was one major event; during the ritual of the stone parade (moving stones from the river bank to a cairn at the village boundary) a Veronique and Alain Gascoigne took part. Veronique is heavily veiled to cover her face and is quite reclusive, Alain is a retired soldier. Veronique leaving the house caused a bit of a stir.

The merriment was cut short late afternoon when young Leopold came running into the village saying he though Armand Le Roux was hurt in the pasture. Hector, Alain and the Characters rushed to the scene to find Armand murdered. A search of the scene revealed Armand's dagger, unshod hoof prints and a skeletal hand with fused finger bones. What had happened?
Alain said that a plan of action needs formulating and the Party volunteered to go to the mine and bring the news to the dwarfs there.
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See you in the next update.

A gaggle of Monks

Part the Second, Our characters receive their mission.

After a good sleep in the hut for the night, the next day breaks overcast but clear. The party carry on their journey and make reasonable time. Following the track they eventually spot a natural opening in the mountainside just off the track and decide to investigate.

Readying a lantern and drawing some weapons, Drok'drin peers inside. At the back of the cave is a midden made of leaves and they disturb the creature within. Panicking, the creature launches itself towards the dwarf and begins biting and clawing to get past.

The strange, but viscous, rat creature is as big as a dog and the dwarf sustains some minor scratches in the scuffle before grabbing the creature by the neck and plunging his dagger into it until it stops moving. They have no idea where it came from, but this weird rat creature may have something to do with last nights events?...

Satisfied that there is nothing else in the cave they continue and, after a short while, climb a rise to see La MaisonTaal in a fertile valley plain below.

Approaching the monastery they are greeted by a junior monk who takes them to an audience with the master, Jean-Louis Dintrans (after Heinfried has a slight mishap with some cheese that did not agree with his stomach).

Jean Louis explains that he has been writing a book on local history for a while and is now on the last chapter and requires help with it. This last chapter is on an infamous outlaw band called the Blue-blooded Bandits (who were all nobility) that were quite powerful around 400 years ago and were eventually defeated by a small army of knights led by the Duc du Parravon.

He wants them to search for the burial mounds of these bandits, which are hard to find because they disguised them by copying ancient mounds of the area. They are to document and map the mounds and return the information to him for payment. He has several groups out covering a large area and gives our party the Frugelhorn Valley.

The party are allowed to stay the night and are given bed and board in the monastery. The characters decide to gather some information and, as such, speak to junior monks and farmers, as well as the cantankerous old librarian, Padre Pierre.

Whilst moaning about wasting the Monastery's time and resources, Pierre lets slip that the old master, who died about a month ago, was also interested in these burial mounds and now the current master is too. Some of this information is corroborated by some locals (scout groups started turning up about a month ago, while the old master was on his death bed) and junior monks (the old master defeated some powerful enemy in his youth and before he died he had some sort of vision). 

The local farmers also provide a name for the figure they keep seeing in the mountains; the ghost of the crags. The figure had been seen wandering in the mountains around here for about a month now...

Jean-Louis dismissed most of this as rumour and wishful thinking; the old master was well-loved and all sorts of tales are told of his exploits, but, yes, he did share his interest in history with the old master as he has been writing the book for many years.

The characters decide that something is not right at La Maisontaal, but decide not to press the matter.

The next day they set off for the village of Frugelhofen which they can use as a base to scout the Frugelhorn Valley. It should take them about a day and a half. The weather is clear and they make good speed. The characters spot the ghost of the crags again, in the distance about a day away. 

When night falls they make camp under a rocky over-hang and they are joined by some dwarfs from Gimbrin's Mine; a dwarf gold mine that is starting to run dry but they make some money selling rose quartz for cheap jewellery to human merchants. They eat food, gamble a bit and then set watch.

During the night, Thalgrim rouses the group to witness something of a lightning storm. However, as they watch they begin to realise all is not as it seems. The lightening is coming from a clear sky and, rather than usual lightening strikes, these are more like single strikes coming at regular intervals. The dwarfs point out that its coming from the far end of the Fruegelhorn Valley. After about 20 strikes, it stops. The dwarfs seems a little perplexed but not overly concerned and return to their bedrolls.

In the morning the dwarfs bid them farewell and the party continue on to Frugelhofen. After the path climbs a waterfall and crosses over the river, the party descend into the valley and see the quaint village of Frugelhofen ahead.

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That is the end of the current session. See you in the next session write-up.

Things that go *squeak* in the night...

Part the first, Bad Weather.

With Jurgen being sent to the Frugelhorn Valley by his church and picking up a motley crew of escorts with promises of good pay, the party already know their mission and where they have to go.

The Frugelhorn Valley is situated in the Grey Mountains, between the Brettonian city of Parravon and the Imperial town of Ubersreik. This area of the Grey Mountains exists in political limbo with neither the Brettonians or the Imperials being able to claim the territory, despite both trying; it remains something of a tax haven.
The party find themselves in Grunere, stocking up on supplies for the journey into the mountains which should take them about a day to reach La MaisonTaal Monastery to receive proper details about the mission.

The journey was harder going than they thought and they kept losing the track, being unused to the area, and Heinfried was having difficulty navigating the terrain with a group of idiots. It was then that things got worse. The weather in these mountains can be fickle and can change without warning; things got dark, then cold, then the rain started.

They needed shelter and Jules looked for a rock overhang to build a fire. It was then they noticed the light in the distance and, as they got closer, realised it was a mountain shelter with a fire. They doubled the pace towards it.

Drok'Drin got there first and, pulling back the sacking that covered the door, he met the occupants.

A stand-off ensued. They Skaven made no aggressive moves, they just encircled the Warlock that led them, who spoke and told them to leave or die. Jurgen, not realising what was happening, blundered into the situation shaking the rain off his coat; the Skaven drew their swords and Jules pulled him out and the party retreated.
While trying to find alternative shelter, Jurgen swore he saw a bent and stooped humanoid figure on the track in the distance, heading north.
Meanwhile, the Skaven, clearly not wanting a fight, fled the shelter allowing the party to bed down in warmth for the night.


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The second part of this session will be up soon. See you in the next update.

4 adventurers walk into a tavern...

We have picked up WFRP after a 4 year (?) hiatus. We are playing v2 as that is (arguably) our favourite version (with v1 being a very close second). Greatly looking forward to getting back into WFRP again; feels like coming back home!

We are playing Lichemaster, which is a great adventure (though it is on rails) with plenty of action and interaction with memorable NPCs. And Undead are always awesome!
Consider the rest of this blog post to be *SPOILERS* if you have never played it.

Intoducing our victims... erm... adventurers!

Jurgen Baumer, Initiate of Morr. 
His father worked for Morr's church as a layperson (he was a smith) and Jurgen just found himself joining the priesthood when he turned of age. He is currently having somewhat of a crisis of faith as he is unsure if he joined because he wants to serve or because of his father. The Order of the Shroud sees potential in him and he is being watched by the Ravenguard who would like to nurture him as an Agent. To this end they have sent him to the Fruegelhorn Valley to help research burial mounds.

Jules DeCoteau, Herrimault.
From a family of farmers in rural Brettonia, they were attempting to eke out a living on the meagre land provided by the local Baron which Jules supplimented by shooting rabbits.. Last year was a pretty bad harvest and the Baron took almost all their food in taxes and Jules was forced to illegally hunt deer to feed his wife and daughter. He was caught by the Baron's men and was flogged for his efforts and their remaining food taken in recompense. That day, Jules became a Herrimault and lives outside of and fights against the unjust law. He now finds himself in the company of other outsiders earning himself some coin for keeping them alive in the mountains.

Drok'Drin the Drunk, Troll Slayer.
Originally from Karak Norn in the Grey Mountains and was a competent smith attached to the Tunnel Fighters brigade. He is now clanless and spends his days with either an axe or a bottle of cheap rotgut spirits in his hand. The events that led to him taking the slayer oath are not something he often shares but, due to the levels of alchohol consumed, have clearly deeply affected him and, when in the heat of battle or the depths of the bottle, he can be heard to mutter the name 'OllaMina' - a lost love, perhapse? Recently, he has been accompanying Heinfried on his exploits, he figures the human will get him killed at some point...

Heinfried Fiegler, Deepwatcher.
Living in a small village in the north-west Empire can be a pretty boring experience and Heinfried found himself craving some adventure. He left for Middenheim to seek his fortune and, as most young men in the City of the Wolf, the wolf chews them up and spits them into the Middenheim Deepwatch. Risking his life in the tunnels below the city for days on end for small coin was not what he had in mind. However, it turned out that Heinfried was either skilled or lucky because he survived his first year and is now a full member of the Guild of Deepwatchers. The guild has recently assigned him to work under the mountains around Helmgart to keep the trade route to Brettonia clear and it was on this job that he met Drok'Drin. The current job dried up and they now find themselves into the service of a priest of Morr making some extra coin looking for burial mounds.


I will post the first session notes sometime in the comming week, so see you in the next update!

Shadows of Brimstone Quest.

Greetings,

We have played quite a bit of Shadows of Brimstone now (Posse level 4) and the cracks are really starting to show; this thing is creaking at the seams. It appears to me that this games was not tested past a certain posse level as the game really does not scale... at all!

Anyway, its still a fun game with a great theme and I wanted to attempt to fix the issues we have with it, thus Shadows of Brimstone Quest was born. This variant takes ideas from Warhammer Quest and a few of my own to try to spice the game up a bit.

It has yet to be playtested to any degree; we will be doing that soon. And if a variant cannot save it, then its probably dead...

Here it is:

Problems

1.      Fights not deadly enough -> more monsters per encounter, fewer overall encounters.

2.      Games can drag due to random nature -> WHQ style objective room system.

Building the Map Deck

There is no world hopping – use 1 map deck for the mission (if it is a mission to an Other World, start on that Other World start tile, Ignoring any rule that states to find a gate).

Decide on the objective room (either dictated by quest rules or fluff).

Take 3 map cards and the Objective Room card, shuffle them together.

Deal a further 4 cards on top of this first pile.

This creates a pile of 8 cards, where the objective room is between 5 and 8; this gives a definite end.

Posse Track

This is now a turn timer – advance it at the start of each turn.

If it ever reaches the Darkness start space, then add a Growing Dread card to the stack.

Exploration Tokens

Ambush – monsters get a Free Attack as they spawn, and then use initiative as normal in the first round.

Clue Icon – draw a Darkness card.

Gate – (add a door icon to this token also) draw a single room card for an Other World (discard corridors and redraw) and draw 2 exploration tokens; if the room is cleared then everyone in the posse may draw a Gear card.

Rooms and Monsters

Rooms always contain monsters; draw a monster card as if it was an attack, in addition to anything on the exploration token. Do not use this rule for the first game.

Boss Health

Extra Large monsters have double the listed health.

  

Quest adjustments

Due to map deck and exploration token changes, some quests need adjustment:

Basic Missions

For a Few Darkstone More – add 1 map card for a medium deposit and 2 map cards for a large deposit (added to the further cards dealt on top).

Exploration – do not use an objective room. Split the 8 card Map Deck into 2 piles and place each pile next to each T-Junction exit. Reveal Map cards only from the path taken. Ignore the Limited Doors rule. A Dead End Showdown happens at the last Map Card for each pile.

Seal the Void Gate – the first room reached is the location of The First Clue objective.

Search Party – as these rules.

Escape – use the removed Cross Path map card to represent a Mine Entrance map card. Place this card and 3 other random cards in 4 piles, then deal 2 more random map cards on top of those piles. Place a pile next to each exit from the Cross Path. Heroes must reach this card to Find the Mine Entrance (instead of the 2D6 roll stated). The Surrounded by Darkness rule does not move the posse marker.

Blow the Mine – as Exploration, above.

City of the Ancients missions

Terror in the Night – ignore the Trail of Clues rule.

Stop the Ritual – as written in the book.

Last Stand – as written in the book.

City of the Ancients – as these rules.

Overload – ignore the No Gates rule.

Frozen Expedition – ignore the Mission Goal rule regarding Clue Icons and replace with the following; “to find Journal Pages the posse must Scavenge for them, each successful scavenge roll also finds a journal page. If the Posse reach the Objective room with missing pages, then these pages are in the Objective room. For every page in the Objective room, draw and resolve a Growing Dread card.”

Swamps of Death missions

Night of the Dead – the Objective room contains any additional Corpse Piles needed to fulfil the mission.

Seal the Hell Pitt – as written in the book.

The Lost Journal – as written in the book.

Swamps of Death – as these rules.

Cursed Idol – as these rules.

Temple of Dread – use the Ribs room as the objective room (causeway to the temple).

New Kids on the (Brimstone) Block

Not posted in a while. No excuses. I just took a break from painting so I could play more games (both Board and Console).

Anyway, the point of this post is to share some enemies I created for Shadows of Brimstone (a game with a poor ruleset that is a ton of fun despite it!). We did not kickstart it so we lack enemy variety, particularly for the Targa otherworld, which is meant to be full of robot guardians.

First up, the Outlaw. This guy represent normal ordinary human wild west enemies. I might do a few variations if the need arises, but this card can serve for most. I use Malifuax minis.

Next up, the Targa robot guardians. The base game comes with the Pylon defence systems but there are (as yet) no other enemies for Targa despite the world being in the base game. The fluff says it has been over-run by demons but that the city is also defended by these robots (the actual race long since gone). I made the robots for variety.
They are to replace the equivalent levels of demon enemy and the point is to simply substitute them on the threat cards on a 1-to-1 basis. The minis I use are from Myth.

And here we have the Swamps of Jargano beasts. The Swamps are home to a race of Snake-men; similar to the Yuan-Ti of D&D, so I use those models.
I also created a Swamp Raptor, as a great flying reptile hunter is alluded to in the fluff (it sounds like a Dragon to me).

So, there you have it. Plenty of enemy variety for us, with different locations having different enemies.

I am working on painting some more Super Dungeon Explore stuff, so will post pics as and when they are done (though they may be some time off yet).

See you in the next update.